The KarBOOM thread

So, as I've mentioned before, KarBOOM is (sadly) no longer a GS game. I wanted cross-platform support, and in the end I wanted it enough that I jumped to Unity.

A nice side-effect of this jump is browser-based demos. Check it out HERE!

The full-version is unfinished, and so there was always going to be more I could do before releasing a demo. In this case, the most glaring issue is the AI being quite utterly stupid - though they can be fun to play against one-on-one. So, that's the next thing I'm working on. Further down the track I'll make standalone Windows, Linux and Mac versions available for people to try.

If you like the game, I'd really appreciate you giving it a good rating on Kongregate. They have a huge community there, many of whom will only see or try games that are already getting some good positive attention.

I'm also looking for constructive feedback and suggestions - even if all you want to do is echo the AI complaints. That's a work motivator

Updated - bots are less suicidal, and you can now set up multi-round games. If any Linux users want to volunteer to test the KarBOOM Linux demo before I release it publicly, please let me know!

Download the new KarBOOM demo for Windows, Mac or Linux.
Let me know how it goes - I have limited access to Windows computers here, and none to Linux machines

Hey Jibb,

the demo works well here (Windows 7).
One thing I would like is a widescreen mode, when I switched to full screen black bars showed up.

Glad it works! Black bars are surprising, though. I'm getting proper widescreen on my Mac. I need to fix my Windows PC so I can test that from here.

Thanks for the heads-up!

GamingOnLinux.com, a linux gaming website (that is, playing games on computers that are running some form of Linux, if the name of the website and my description of the website didn't make that really clear), gives KarBOOM a nice mention here.

Isn't that nice? A year and a half of porting all worth it now.

To be fair, a lot of that time was dead-ends and procrastination.

Oh, and the demo now has team play. It looks something like this, except that the demo doesn't have this level:



Roel, I have not tested it on Windows 7 yet, so the problem is likely still there, but I do plan to look at that soon.

I have only played the kongregate demo right now and only the klassic mode against a few bots so I've yet to play the other mode(s) and the desktop demo but I really like it so far, it feels so extremely polished already. Gonna give a more detailed review later when I played more of it, just wanted to drop in and tell you that already a short bite of it is extremely fun. I'm also impressed to see that you seem to have made quite a proper port from acknex to unity, as it looks and (i guess) feels just like the acknex demo footage you had back then. Given that working in Unity seems to work out nicely for you, do you think you might use it for future projects?

Good news: the widescreen works.
Perhaps last time it was just a wrong setting somewhere on my machine.
The flag game is a lot of fun,
and Karboom already seems to be better than what it was with acknex.

@Roel: Glad it works! Yeah, flag is my favourite way to play it at the moment. I like the action being directed around a single objective a bit more than the chaos of a free-for-all. King of the hill will have a similar feel, I think.

@the_clown: Thanks! I really appreciate that! I will almost certainly be using Unity for future projects. Cross-platform, a great development environment (though MonoDevelop eats up memory, so I use GEdit), and it performs pretty well as long as you avoid potential traps with the garbage collector. I highly recommend it. Once I have more than enough money to pay for room and food, I'll upgrade to Pro.

EDIT: Switched to Sublime Text 3 at Sid's suggestion, and man... so far, so very, very good.

KarBOOM gets quite an article on BeefJack.com, discussing the challenges of KarBOOM's development as well as my hopes for the future of it and PC gaming in general.

Also, a new demo's out. Having some issues with the latest web-player (which Kongregate automatically uses), so it's about time I integrated the browser-demo into KarBOOM's website. Meanwhile, the latest demo can be downloaded from IndieDB, as always, and will be available on Desura soon.

The new demo introduces the Gamble game mode - bid points to be the target in timed rounds of one-vs-all survival. Survive to your bid time and you get those points. Get knocked out beforehand and you lose them. Requires two or more human players to play, as bots can't bet, but they're still useful since they'll always chase the highest bidder.

Hello Jibb!
As I was on vacation I could not test your new version of KarBOOM (and then admittedly forgot about it) but now I've caught up on it.
An honest critique:
I've liked your old version (KarBOOM 0_3b from Oct 2011) better, not because it was still using acknex but because the gameplay is better, the handling of the cars, it's just more fun to me. Please fire up one of your old versions and compare the handling of the cars (tried middleweight and heavy cars), I don't even know what it is, maybe that the cars right now react too directly.
A few more points: Where is the boost-meter? The boost effect and in general the explosions looked better in your old version but maybe this is because of limitations of your Unity edition, I don't know. Adding multiple bots is a little cumbersome right now, maybe you could add a button that adds a (randomized?) bot or remember the "bot" type when I add additional AI cars. Hm I thought I had one more point about the HUD but nevermind.

Hey Superku!

Yeah, I have noticed the change in handling. Before moving to Unity I hadn't played KarBOOM in a while. Then I gave it a go and, to be honest, was shocked at how unresponsive kars were. This was something I'd noticed new players in my dorm struggling with, as well, and so it's quite intentional that kars react more directly.

Boost-meter... I keep forgetting about that. Yeah, I need to re-implement that for Unity. Players' eyes are usually on their kars rather than their score cards at the bottom, so I'm entertaining the idea of a boost-meter that follows each kar rather than sitting it below player scores - especially since some game modes don't give all the kars score cards.

Good point about adding bots being cumbersome. It is, and that's feedback I've received a few times already. My first response was to say, "Well, KarBOOM's really best played with other people anyway, and I want to discourage players from filling every slot up with bots, as the current levels and game modes aren't designed for that." But that doesn't stop people - it just makes them more annoyed while they do it. So I'm thinking I'll replace the "+" icons for adding kars with a human icon and a bot icon, side-by-side. They'll still be able to be switched between bot and different keyboard players as they currently are.

The explosions -- yeah, they previously depended quite a bit on the bloom effect I was using. There are other changes I've made to the effect to make it more efficient, and better display the intended colour without the use of bloom, but that's a fair criticism that I'll keep in mind if time permits me to address those kinds of details later on.

Thanks for your honesty. Do let me know if you remember the point about the HUD.

Cheers!

Hey everyone!

I'd love to have your support to get KarBOOM on Steam Greenlight! It'd be absolutely amazing to see KarBOOM get on Steam sooner or later. Meanwhile, KarBOOM will be released on Desura, FireFlowerGames.com and ShinyLoot.com on October 29th, and if KarBOOM does get Greenlit, customers who've already bought KarBOOM will get Steam keys.

A new demo is out - kind of. It can be played in your browser at KarBOOM.net, and is awaiting approval on IndieDB and Desura. I've added boost meters (thanks for the reminder, Superku), tweaked the appearance of the explosions (still not as good as GS KB, but better than before), and made a bunch of tweaks to the UI, the game defaults, the bots, and so on.


(Not in the demo)

The boost meter is very well implemented!
I did not find a level selection but I guess this is because of the demo?

You got my vote on Greenlight but sadly I have to say I don't enjoy the game that much anymore, and that's simply because of the new Kar handling, it's way too direct for my taste. I remember playing an early version of your game with a friend of mine some years ago in front of my PC when we should be doing stuff for university, and the fun and especially the tension arose just because of the drifting and general handling of the cars.
What I would suggest for you is to keep your movement right now for concrete/ asphalt grounds and implement the GS handling for your default mud/ ground levels. Simplicity in terms of direct handling is IMO not a good thing, that's like making the movement in a jump'n'run/ side-scroller less interesting on purpose.

Anyway, I wish you good luck with KarBOOM!

Hey Superku,

Yes, there's no level select in the demo, but the full version will have it.
I'm going to leave the responsiveness as-is. The charged boost adds complexity to the game and is already quite difficult for new players to use safely.

Thanks again for your honest feedback, though, and for voting for KarBOOM anyway

KarBOOM is coming out next Tuesday! Oh deary me that is soon! How exciting!

The final demo is up on IndieDB!

• Improved AI
• Improved tumbling physics and collision models
• Quicker bot toggling options and slicker UI
• "Trainer" mutator dumbs down the bots
• Tie-breakers make sure no non-showdown game ends in a tie

Get the latest demo on IndieDB, or play it in your browser.

And again, any votes on Greenlight would be very much appreciated!

I've tested the demo (on Windows obviously) and the game's screen positions itself on my two monitor setup in the middle of the virtual screen, i.e. one half of the window on each screen. It does have the resolution of my primary monitor and fullscreen is toggled on but of course not active.

I know you've already stated that you will keep the handling as is, but what about a "classic feel" or "rally handling" or "pro (mode)" mutator or something like that which emulates the old behavior?

That's weird about the window. Did that fix up once you clicked the fullscreen button?

I just looked through most of the original KarBOOM thread and was hit by a lot of nostalgia, and I guess some sadness that KarBOOM as it's currently being released is missing a few of features I was so excited about at the beginning: online play, level editor, and replay mode.

Replay mode is something I'd like to re-implement for a post-release update, and I'd like to explore a better implementation of online play.

In terms of a rally mutator, yeah, I'll explore that Not in time for the release - distributors already all have KarBOOM 1.0, but I will experiment with that for a future update.

Thanks for your support and feedback over the years!

Now it starts in fullscreen correctly. AFAIR I had to switch fullscreen off first, then click it again to get a fullscreen application.
Indeed, it's pretty sad that there's no online play right now, you should definitely add that, sooner than later!

As I've already said in my PM, good luck with the launch!

Much appreciated

There's no telling how much longer KarBOOM would've taken to make if I wanted to have online working well - especially since the engine switch means it'd need to be re-implemented from scratch. But maybe one day!

My tentative post-release schedule is:

• Bugs and complaints addressed + simple new mutators
• Fix up the AI system to accommodate more interesting arena layouts + (hopefully) a couple more interesting arenas
• Re-explore online. Which could take a while, so maybe roll out some cool new arenas during that experimentation to keep people engaged.

Congratulations!

I´ve tried the demo and i have to say it look very polished!
You really should think about making this a mobile game! It has a lot of potential for a Smartphone game!

KarBOOM's out now!

You can get it for $10 from a few different popular indie distributors. You can find them all on KarBOOM.net. Buying direct through the website is best for me, as it gets me the biggest cut of the sale price, and it's the best for you, because it gets you permanent download links associated with your email address (Humble Bundle style - in fact you can even link it to your Humble Bundle account!) and you get a Desura key.

Up to you, though! I'm not gonna ask who bought it!

Thanks for all the support throughout development, even after I switched away from GS. I really appreciate it!

Greenlight still has a way to go - support there would be much appreciated, too!

supported on greenlight

I wish you the best luck with your game!

KarBOOM's been updated!



12 players, new bots, multi-teams, and a bunch of fixes. Detailed info right here.

If you got the game on Desura, you should be able to update it through your Desura client. If you got it through KarBOOM's website, find that email you got when you bought the game, or, log into Humble Bundle if your purchase is associated with your Humble account.

PS: Thanks, Kartoffel

Supercool! Congratulations!!